Pope John Paul II, perhaps the most admired pope of the twentieth century, made a name for himself as a symbol of freedom and liberty. He gave moral sustenance for hundreds of millions suffering under the yoke of communist oppression. Unfortunately, just over a decade after his death, the current pope — Pope Francis — seems intent on doing the opposite, using the considerable weight of his office to excuse tyranny and turn his back on oppression. Speaking to a French Roman Catholic newspaper, he criticized the West for allegedly trying to export its own brand of democracy to Iraq and Libya. According to Reuters, he said:

Faced with current Islamist terrorism, we should question the way a model of democracy that was too Western was exported to countries where there was a strong power, as in Iraq, or Libya, where there was a tribal structure…We cannot advance without taking these cultures into account.